Russian Criminal Owl Tattoo

30 June, 2011

Not blogged in ages, been really busy.

If you follow this Blog, you’ll know that a few weeks ago I went to Primavera Sound, and was quite excited about it. To mark the occasion I decided to get a tattoo while I was there. Trouble was, I couldn’t find a tattoo shop. I came home un-inked.

Luckily, I was booked in to get a new tattoo with Liam Sparkes a week later, back in London. So I guess this is my Primavera tattoo. Funnily enough, while I was getting it done, Liam told me he was at the festival too – and he did get a tattoo done while out there. His was done by Jondix.

So this is it (proving once again that I cannot pose for photos). It’s a Russian criminal tattoo, taken from the cover of The Russian Criminal Encyclopaedia Vol. III. It represents “a murderer”. I already have Russian tattoos of a cat and a spider – which represent “a thief”. If you ask me to explain why I chose these – I can’t, really. Not to normal people anyway. For me, tattooing is about irony: choosing to get a tattoo is all about being brave and being stupid. You can’t really justify it too much. If you do, you’re just being pretentious. Go with the flow. And everyone ends up with the tattoo they really deserve…

Comments

Brooklyn on 9 July, 2011

Brooklyn on 9 July, 2011

Oh I see – ‘murderer’. Having a tattoo is a nice thing, it doesn’t have to be ironic or stupid. It can be very meaningful!

quesoanejo on 27 February, 2012

i think the owl is symbolic of a burglar, hence the crowbar, no?

Moti Alexandrovich on 15 May, 2013

I dare you to walk around brighton beach brooklyn with your shirt off, show off those tattoos and see what happens. if the wrong person sees you, he will kidnap you and slice off the skin. those tattoos were worn only by criminals in jail in russia.

Dana DeVoe on 7 December, 2018

I just did 6.5 years in federal prison. Russians don’t care one bit if you have a cat or an owl or anything else. No one real is getting any of those tattoos anymore. Even the stars on the knees and shoulders aren’t real anymore. A Russian Vor(if he’s real)is busy running various money making operations,he would take a look at this dude and laugh because his great grandfather probably had the owl tattoo.

Spider Web Design on 9 December, 2018

Thank you for reading this blog post and taking the time to reply – your comments are very interesting and I’m grateful to receive information from a reliable and authentic source!

Max Volkov on 6 March, 2019

While I fully support of choice, stupid choices should have consequences. I recently finished a 16 year sentence for conspiracy to import a controlled substance. Tattoos DO have meaning within our world and while I would not waste a second of my time on some clown who thinks its “cool” to get a prison tattoo without ever having endured the hardship of life under the control of a bunch of goof pigs and corrupt administrators, I would ask that you please do go for a long walk on a hot summer day around Brighton Beach…hopefully you’ll run into some guys with less sense than I’ve got and hopefully they will kick the shit out of you, you disrespectful dickhead.